GOLD, SILVER, COPPER, LEAD, AND ZINC IN TEXAS

In the year 1933 metal mines in Texas produced (in terms of recovered metals) 160 fine ounces of silver, 2,000 pounds of copper, and 6,000 pounds of lead from small shipments of ore from Culberson, Hudspeth, and Presidio Counties to the El Paso smelter. Details are given in the tables that follow.

1

The total production of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in Texas (in terms of recovered metals) from the beginning of production in 1885 to the end of 1933, according to Henderson, has been 4,608 fine ounces of gold, 22,774,105 fine ounces of silver, 1,309,960 pounds of copper, 3,781,126 pounds of lead, and 1,488,474 pounds of zinc.

Mine production of gold, silver, copper, and lead in Texas, 1929-33, in terms of recovered metals 1

The value of metal production herein reported has been calculated at the figures given in the table that follows. Gold is figured at the mint value for fine gold, that is, $20.671835 an ounce. The silver price is the average New York price for bar silver. The copper, lead, and zinc prices are weighted averages for each year of all grades of primary metal sold by producers.

For production from 1885 to 1927 and prices used in calculating values see Henderson, Chas. W., Mineral Resources, 1927, pt. 1, pp. 477-478. See also Henderson, Chas. W., Mineral Resources, 1914, pt. I, p. 236.

Mine production of silver, copper, and lead in Texas in 1933, by counties and by classes of ore, in terms of recovered metals

Brewster, Culberson, and Hudspeth Counties.-The chapters on Texas in Mineral Resources, 1929 and 1930, part I, give details of development in these three counties.

El Paso County. The copper-smelting works and lead plant of the American Smelting & Refining Co. are at El Paso. At the end of 1933 the copper works consisted of 2 reverberators, with a total annual capacity of 600,000 tons of ore, and 3 converters; the lead plant was equipped with 3 furnaces having a total annual capacity of 200,000 tons. The lead plant treats lead ore and concentrates from Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas and lead ore in bond from Mexico. The copper plant was built originally in 1910 to handle copper concentrates from Chino Mines at Santa Rita, N.Mex.; it also receives copper ore and concentrates from Arizona. Natural gas for fuel was introduced in these plants in 1930.2 Both plants were operated very intermittently in 1933.

The Nichols electrolytic copper refinery, also at El Paso, was completed and set in operation in 1930 to treat copper anodes produced at the Arizona smelters of the Phelps Dodge Corporation and the Calumet and Arizona Mining Co. The yearly capacity is 100,000 tons of anodes.3 The plant was not operated at full capacity during 1933.

Presidio County.-From 1885 to 1930, inclusive, the Presidio mine at Shafter, Tex., has produced (in terms of recovered metal) 20,282,186 ounces of silver. The property was closed June 30, 1930, owing to the declining price of silver, but the mine contains reserves of silver ore. It was reopened early in 1934.

Marble, E. R., Natural-Gas Firing at El Paso Smelting Works: Min. and Met., October 1930, pp.

466-7.

3 Robie, E. H., A Trip Through the New Nichols Copper Refinery at El Paso, Tex.: Eng. and Min. Jour., vol. 129, January 1930, pp. 5-10; Furnace and Casting Equipment of the New Nichols Refinery: Eng. and Min. Jour., vol. 129, January 1930, pp. 73-6.

Corwin, F. R., and Harloff, C. S., El Paso Refinery of the Nichols Copper Co.: Min. and Met., October 1930, pp. 459-65.

1885-1912

1913-26.

1927.

Production of silver from the Presidio mine,1 1885-1930'

Silver content of mill
heads (ounces)

Recovery of silver

Period

Mill heads
treated
(short tons)

Howbert, Van Dyne, and Gray, F. E., Milling Methods and Costs at Presidio Mine of the American Metal Co. of Texas: Am. Inst. Min. and Met. Eng. Tech. Pub. 368, 1930; Howbert, Van Dyne, and Bosustow, Robert, Mining Methods and Costs at Presidio Mine of the American Metal Co. of Texas: Am. Inst. Min. and Met. Eng. Tech. Pub. 334, 1930.

? No production in 1931, 1932, and 1933.

Using the company's 1927 report of 1,004,384 ounces of silver recovered gives 91.13 percent recovery; using 91.41 percent (Howbert and Gray, work cited, p. 6) as recovery gives 1,007,434 ounces of silver recovered.

69174-34-18

GOLD, SILVER, COPPER, LEAD, AND ZINC IN UTAH

The output of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc from Utah mines in 1933, in terms of recovered metals, was 109,129.55 fine ounces of gold, 5,669,197 fine ounces of silver, 73,583,130 pounds of copper, 117,376,556 pounds of lead, and 59,489,193 pounds of zinc. This output compares with a production in 1932 of 135,256.35 ounces of gold, 6,962,097 ounces of silver, 64,964,111 pounds of copper, 125,552,966 pounds of lead, and 59,331,888 pounds of zinc. There were 121 lode mines and 21 placers producing in 1933 compared with 86 lode mines and 19 placers in 1932.

Since 1864 the output of the five metals in Utah has been as follows: Gold, 7,000,309 fine ounces; silver, 598,106,470 fine ounces; copper, 4,855,654,109 pounds; lead, 7,196,590,720 pounds; and zinc 984,274,157 pounds. The total value of this output has been $1,814,314,1052 of which $144,709,2302 represents the value of gold.

Premium on newly mined gold. There were four epochs of gold prices for newly mined gold in the United States in 1933: (1) The period of the legal coinage value of $20.671835, from January 1 to August 9 to all producers; (2) that of (a) $20.671835 to the majority of producers and (b) the fluctuating world price as secured by export by some producers, to August 29; (3) the period of fluctuating world price as secured through the agency of the Federal Reserve banks, to October 25 (period of actual bank sales, from September 8 to November 1); and (4) the period of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation arbitrarily fixed, gradually rising price (generally above the world price), from October 25 to December 31, 1933. For further details see

1 Assisted by Paul Luff and Jeannette Froiseth. Value of gold calculated at $20.671835 an ounce.